The present invention relates to data center infrastructure, and more particularly, this invention relates to implementing link layer discovery protocol (LLDP) on multiple nodes of a distributed fabric networking system.
LLDP is a useful tool in network infrastructure recognition and intercommunications. It is a link layer protocol encompassed by the Internet Protocol Suite used by network devices for advertising their identity, capabilities, and nearest neighbors on a local area network (LAN) that adheres to Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802. In the context of a distributed fabric, LLDP may be used to exchange information between any of the devices in the distributed fabric, which appears as a single logical switch.
However, since LLDP relies on protocol data units (PDUs) to exchange information between connected networking devices, as more and more networking devices are included in the distributed fabric, scaling becomes an issue. Current solutions centralize the management of LLDP on a master node of the fabric, and this does not scale effectively as all the PDUs sent back and forth between the various networking devices are processed and generated on a single processor. As the size of the distributed fabric grows ever larger, and more LLDP neighbors are attached and announce their existence to the fabric, the master node's processor is unable to cope with the increased load on its limited resources. Centralizing the LLDP management on the master node also constrains other protocols that are dependent on LLDP, such as Data Center Bridging Capabilities Exchange (DCBX) protocol, Channel Discovery and Configuration Protocol (CDCP), etc., in their implementations, usage, and effectiveness.